QuickBooks is the standard accounting software for millions of small businesses. It’s relatively cheap and easy to learn, and is built for small companies that have very basic operational processes and reporting requirements. But as their business grows, most companies will outgrow QuickBooks and will need a more robust platform to scale operations and provide necessary reporting and month-end closing. Unfortunately, most companies stay with Quickbooks way too long, to the detriment of their business growth.

While QuickBooks is an excellent financial software for small businesses, it was really only designed for accounting and very basic operational functions which Quickbooks added on for small business users, a short-term solution. QuickBooks was not built to handle the complex operational processes and challenges involved with multi-channel selling, increasing orders, vendor and inventory management.

Here are some signs that your business is outgrowing QuickBooks, and why you may need an alternative solution.

You’re Trying to Stitch Together Disjointed Applications That Only Breeds Confusion

QuickBooks wasn’t designed to handle the more sophisticated operational requirements of high volume sellers. So when daily orders start gaining momentum, growing retailers will need to add more applications and systems for specific functions, such as listing software, CRM, inventory management and order management.

These disparate systems take time to learn and implement, and could cause bottlenecks, data inconsistencies, broken integrations and more manual processes, particularly managing multiple reports through spreadsheets.

You’re Juggling Too Many Spreadsheets That Only Cause More Problems

Data is essential for growing your business, but when you rely on multiple systems that are not integrated with each other, your data will be siloed into spreadsheets that take time to extract, analyze, reconcile, and share with other team members. This is costly, time-consuming and leads more room for error.

When transferring data across systems, it’s easy to get the customer information wrong. Customer information could be buried in QuickBooks, sales spreadsheets and other systems. Not knowing which data is correct, you may end up billing the wrong customer address or contact. Customer service also suffers when your support team can’t see updated information in real time.

Your employees will have a hard time accessing financial information on the fly, especially if they if they use Excel and data isn’t updated in real time. If your team can’t access QuickBooks remotely, it could cause delays in significant business decisions. Having a central place for data is crucial in ecommerce, and you’ll need consolidated financial reports that are updated in real time.

Your Staff Wastes Time Entering Redundant Data

QuickBooks offers some standard reports for small businesses, but high volume sellers need stronger reporting capabilities. Most of the time, you’ll need to use spreadsheets and manually re-enter data to generate the reports you need.

If your employees spend several hours a week manually re-inputting information across multiple systems, there is a clearly a misallocation of resources that is costly to your business.

Manually handling and transferring order and customer information through spreadsheets can result in backlogs, bottlenecks and lost sales. As orders grow in volume and become more complex, errors are bound to spring up during the month-end close, adding more pressure on your team.

Your Sales Forecasting and Budgeting Processes Rely on Guesswork Rather Than Hard Data

Every good business knows the significance of accurate reporting when it comes to budgeting and sales forecasting. But when your data is scattered across multiple spreadsheets and systems, it’s difficult to get historic information in the right format to do a proper trend analysis.

You need solid, consolidated data to inform your sales projections and spending budgets. An inventory management system provides you with real-time stock visibility so you know when to reorder, but often, it won’t be connected to your accounting and financial software, making budget planning more difficult.

Why You Need to Upgrade to an ERP System to Grow Your Business

Some third-party software vendors may claim to integrate with QuickBooks, but in most cases, the integration isn’t truly seamless or they may have inferior user interfaces. Many vendors allow you to download Excel or CSV files, but it’s up to you to coordinate the data. This kind of patchwork is not viable for high volume sellers that need a fully integrated system that acts as a central hub for all your data. It is not a sustainable business model.

An ERP or all-in-one ecommerce platform, such as Jazva, can eliminate these challenges by providing secure, cloud-based integrated suite of features that allow you to manage all aspects of ecommerce in one interface, including:

• Products & Listings
• Inventory Management
• Order Processing
• Integrated Shipping
• Financials & Accounting
• Reports & Analytics

In most cases, ERPs either approach only one or a few components of the ecommerce process. If they do offer unified ecommerce, they tend to have stripped down functionalities unless you purchase more expensive custom software.

Built for high volume retailers, Jazva unities every step of multi-channel ecommerce. Jazva not only lists across multiple channels, but also reorders inventory based on calculated projections. As a central hub for all of your data, Jazva gives you accurate, consolidated reports and a 360° view of your business, so you can make faster, smarter decisions.

Ready to make the switch?